Spencer Ackerman Today’s Must Read

Remember that recently-impaneled grand jury looking at Blackwater’s Nisour Square shootings? Turns out it’s not just about Blackwater.

Four years into the occupation, prosecutors are attempting to build the first criminal case against private security companies — who up until now worked in a system rigged to ensure unaccountability.

Jeffery McMurray Soldier Decries AWOL Arrest at Hospital

A soldier facing his second tour of duty in Iraq said in a jailhouse interview he was at a hospital seeking mental help when he was arrested in the middle of the night for allegedly being absent without leave.

Spc. Justin Faulkner insists his superior officers at Fort Campbell knew about his mental problems but refused to provide adequate treatment.

Jason Rhyne Former White House Press Secretary: Bush, Rove Helped Pass Along “False Information” on Plame

“The most powerful leader in the world had called upon me to speak on his behalf and help restore credibility he lost amid the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq,” writes McClellan. “So I stood at the White house briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights for the better part of two weeks and publicly exonerated two of the senior-most aides in the White House: Karl Rove and Scooter Libby.”

But his press performances weren’t based on the facts, McClellan continues.

“There was one problem. It was not true,” he writes. “I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice President, the President’s chief of staff, and the president himself.”

Robert Levine A Guerilla Video Site Meets MTV
“‘They gave me a pitch of 60 Minutes-meets-Jackass,‘ said Jeff Yapp, the executive vice president for program enterprises for the MTV Networks music group.

In return for its investment — which is not mentioned on the VBS site — MTV gets a low-cost laboratory in which to experiment with Internet video programming as it struggles to adjust to a world where online content is chipping away at television’s dominance.”

Mark Tran Guards Shot Children Dead After Afghan Suicide Blast, Says UN
“Many of the children who died in Afghanistan’s worst-ever suicide attack were actually shot dead by bodyguards who fired indiscriminately into the crowd after the blast, a UN report said.”

Julia Preston Immigration Dilemma: A Mother Torn From a Baby
“Federal immigration agents were searching a house in Ohio last month when they found a young Honduran woman nursing her baby.

The woman, Saída Umanzor, is an illegal immigrant and was taken to jail to await deportation. Her 9-month-old daughter, Brittney Bejarano, who was born in the United States and is a citizen, was put in the care of social workers.

The decision to separate a mother from her breast-feeding child drew strong denunciations from Hispanic and women’s health groups.”

Matthew Yglesias, The LBJ Analogy:
“And this bothers me about Hillary Clinton in a way that extends beyond the mere argument-by-analogy. What Roberts recounts as Clinton’s attitude toward the climate change issue — she understands the problem, she understands the solution, and rather than telling advocates what they want to hear she’s telling them that she also understands how to move the ball forward in concrete, realistic terms — seems pretty appealing to me. And on climate change, health care, and most of the other big domestic issues, I believe that she does understand the problem and understand the solution. The left-right divide on those topics has relatively little to do with disagreements about desirable end-states. Rather, you mostly see disagreement about political possibilities, or even things that aren’t disagreement at all, but just different politicians responding to different political circumstances.”

Maria Cramer Boston Police Plan to Search Youths’ Homes for Guns
“Boston police are launching a program that will call upon parents in high-crime neighborhoods to allow detectives into their homes, without a warrant, to search for guns in their children’s bedrooms.

The program, which is already raising questions about civil liberties, is based on the premise that parents are so fearful of gun violence and the possibility that their own teenagers will be caught up in it that they will turn to police for help, even in their own households.”

Leslie Eaton, In Mississippi, Poor Lag in Hurricane Aid
” But so far, the state has spent $1.7 billion in federal money on programs that have mostly benefited relatively affluent residents and big businesses. The money has gone to compensate many middle- and upper-income homeowners, to aid utility companies whose equipment was damaged and to prop up the state’s insurance system.

Just $167 million, or about 10 percent of the federal money, has been spent on programs dedicated to helping the poor, mostly through a smaller grant program for lower-income homeowners.”

Kevin Delaney and Amol Sharma Google Has Even Bigger Plans for Mobile Phones
“The company is gearing up to make a serious run at buying wireless spectrum, a chunk of the airwaves that can be used to provide mobile phone and Internet services, in a Federal Communications Commission auction in January. Google is prepared to bid on its own without any partners, say people familiar with the matter. It is working out a plan to finance its bid, which could run $4.6 billion or higher, that would rely on its own cash and possibly some borrowed money.”

Michael McCann Indictment leads to new questions
“Keep in mind, a grand jury indictment is a long way from a criminal conviction, which requires the much higher burden of beyond a reasonable doubt. Some legal commentators have also criticized the grand jury process as overly-secretive and stacked too much in favor of the prosecution. The prosecutor, for instance, determines which witnesses appear before the grand jury, can offer immunity to those witnesses, and conducts the basic questioning of the proceeding, while a defendant may not even have his or her attorney present. These limitations to the grand jury hearing may give confidence to Bonds and his attorney, Mike Rains, as they prepare for a possible trial.”

Anne Flaherty Senate Blocks Iraq War Money
“Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said this week that if Congress cannot pass legislation that ties war money to troop withdrawals, they would not send President Bush a bill this year.

Instead, they would revisit the issue upon returning in January, pushing the Pentagon to the brink of an accounting nightmare and deepening Democrats’ conflict with the White House on the war.”

Michael Higgins and James Oliphant Federal Judge in Chicago Picked for Key Justice Job
“Like Mukasey, Filip would not seem to be a natural choice for a high-level Washington post. After clerking for Scalia, Filip returned to Chicago rather than stay in Washington and pursue the kind of career track that traditionally leads to a choice government appointment. He did, however, work as a volunteer Republican vote counter in Florida during the 2000 election recount.”

Jordan Robertson Comcast Sued Over Web Interference
“Hart’s lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Alameda County Superior Court , alleges Comcast misleads customers by promising “mind-blowing” speeds and “unfettered access” to the Internet in advertisements while hindering the use of certain applications such as peer-to-peer file sharing. It seeks unspecified money damages.”

Dan Froomkin Where are the Emails?
“When Congress asked about 5 million executive branch e-mails that went missing, a White House lawyer pointed the finger at an outside IT contractor.

“The only problem? No such IT contractor exists, according to sources close to the investigation of a possible violation of the Federal Records and Presidential Records acts.”

The Herald Sun 120 US War Veteran Suicides a Week
“At least 6256 US veterans committed suicide in 2005 - an average of 17 a day - the network reported, with veterans overall more than twice as likely to take their own lives as the rest of the general population.”

The New York Times U.S. Is Looking Past Musharraf in Case He Falls
“Several senior administration officials said that with each day that passed, more administration officials were coming around to the belief that General Musharraf’s days in power were numbered and that the United States should begin considering contingency plans, including reaching out to Pakistan’s generals.”

Sharon LaFraniere African Crucible: Cast as Witches, Then Cast Out
“In parts of Angola, Congo and the Congo Republic, a surprising number of children are accused of being witches, and then are beaten, abused or abandoned. Child advocates estimate that thousands of children living in the streets of Kinshasa, Congo’s capital, have been accused of witchcraft and cast out by their families, often as a rationale for not having to feed or care for them.”

Zachary Coile Senators blast Coast Guard response to bay oil spill
“Adm. Thad Allen, the Coast Guard commandant who has defended his agency in recent days, acknowledged at Wednesday’s Senate subcommittee briefing that the response was not adequate. He announced that he is replacing the commander who led the response, and within 90 days will make public the results of an investigation into what went wrong.”

Matthew Yglesias - The Awful Truth:
“Around Democratic Washington — and among political junkies all around the country — people have tons of barroom wisdom about the electability, judgment, experience, managerial competence, etc. of the various candidates but frankly I think the evidence available on all of these scores is indecisive and that the issue is pretty inherently unknowable.”

Sabin Russell - People in AIDS vaccine study to be warned of possible higher risk:
“Nearly 3,000 volunteers who participated in a study of an experimental AIDS vaccine that may have unexpectedly raised the risk of contracting HIV will be notified shortly whether they received the actual vaccine or a placebo. … Because the early results of the trial showed that vaccinated volunteers might be at higher risk of contracting HIV, there was a compelling ethical case to tell participants whether they were assigned the vaccine or placebo. However, by un-blinding the study, researchers will be limiting the scientific value of any data produced as they follow participants in the coming years.”

David Johnston and John Broder, F.B.I. Says Guards Killed 14 Iraqis Without Cause
“The F.B.I. investigation into the shootings in Baghdad is still under way, but the findings, which indicate that the company’s employees recklessly used lethal force, are already under review by the Justice Department.”

Peter Baker Bush Veto Sets Up Clash on Budget
“As Bush demands full funding for the war, he signaled that Tuesday’s action will be the first of a cascade of vetoes killing other spending bills, casting himself as a deficit hawk blocking a tax-and-spend Congress. Democrats are seeking to paint Bush as a reckless leader who spent the nation deep into debt through failed war policies while ignoring schools, medical research and other vital areas.”

Rory McCarthy Palestinian Peace Brokers Aim at Pact With Isreal Within year
“In the past the commitments under the “road map” have been dealt with sequentially, meaning the first phase had to be completed before a final agreement could be negotiated. Now the Palestinians want to start talks on the core issues - the borders of a Palestinian state, the future of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees - at the same time as the first phase is being implemented. ‘This sequentiality will kill both the security and the political solution and will get us into stagnation,’ Abed Rabbo said. ‘Now they understand the need to make that combination of both. The approach has changed.’”